


Care Vale

by icyowl97



Category: Care Bears, Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Care Bears AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-12
Updated: 2014-05-16
Packaged: 2018-01-24 12:50:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1605803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icyowl97/pseuds/icyowl97
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What would happen if Night Vale happened in the Care Bears universe? This just happened, okay? It just happened. One minute I was tumblr, the next minute I'm writing this.<br/>For anyone who is a fan of Care Bears, I apologize for any mistakes I might make. I haven't seen Care Bears in a long time, and while I did watch some to write this, and I have been googling, I'm by no means an expert. <br/>I don't know how this is going to work out. Feel free to tell me if I should write more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Welcome to Care Vale

"A friendly Care-A-Lot community where the sun is bright, the stars are sentient, and we all walk on rainbows. Welcome to Care Vale." Carlos stared at the radio, unsure as to if he should turn the volume up, or turn it off. He had never heard a bear with such a low voice, and it sent shivers down his spine. The problem was, he didn't know if the shivers were good or bad.

Carlos rubbed his stomach absent-mindedly as he pulled into the town of Care Vale. He'd decided to leave the radio on, but as the town pulled into view, the mystery of the voice on the radio faded into background noise as he beheld the town itself. 

The buildings were.... Wrong. They were just wrong. Some seemed to keep going up, into the void and out of sight. Some were upside down, or on their sides. Some were all windows, while others had no windows at all. But the thing that startled him the most was the fact that the town had simply appeared once he had gotten within 6 feet of it.

"-Contact Old Bear Josie. She's out near the Care lot." Carlos turned the radio up, trying to see if the host would have anything to say explaining why the Care lot had magically appeared in front of him.

"A new bear came into town today. Who is he? What does he want from us? Why his perfect and beautiful fur? Why his perfect and beautiful coat? He says he is a scientist. Well, we have all been scientists at one point or another in our lives. But why here? Why now? And just what does he plan to do with all those breakers and buzzing electrical instruments in that lab he's renti-" 

Carlos's paw shot out as he slammed the volume down. The radio wouldn't turn off, but he did manage to bring it down so that he could barely hear it. 

With one paw on the wheel, the other one the dial, Carlos tried to steady his breathing. There was probably a reason that word had gotten to the radio host so fast. But no matter how much he tried to convince himself of that, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with this, and he couldn't move his hand from the dial, like he was afraid the volume would suddenly shoot up and reveal that the host was spilling all Carlos's secrets.

Oh. That was what he was afraid of. He slowly, very, very slowly, turned the radio back up. As unfounded as his fear was, the logical part of his mind thought that if the radio host were to share his secrets, it would be better for him to hear it. 

"-are the unmarked cloudcopters circling the area grey? Probably world government. Not a good area for play-" Carlos turned the radio down once he was sure the host wasn't talking about him and continued driving to the lab he was renting, though he was still uneasy about the whole radio thing.

When he got to the lab, next to a place called Big Rico's Pizza, he was relived to find that the dimensions and things were fine. He parked his car in the parking lot and stepped out. 

The ground wasn't as bouncy as it had been back where he used to live, and a closer inspection showed that the clouds here were thunderclouds. 

He'd heard about it before, but it didn't happen very often. Thunderclouds could also be dangerous, so Carlos ran inside. It should be fine in a few hours.

When he entered, he realized that there was a radio inside the building. Still illogically unnerved by the voice on the radio, Carlos searched the building, finally finding it ten minutes later, hidden in a bag of flour in the pantry. He turned the volume down, and, while he couldn't turn this one off either, he managed to get it low enough that he could think again.

Why had the radio host known he was coming? Well, that part made sense. He had gotten the research position here a few weeks ago. Of course the community news channels would know. That wasn't what bothered him. What bothered him was that the host had known what he looked like. Even in a small, tight knit community like Care Vale, it seemed a bit insane that word could get around within minutes. 

Maybe someone from the office had sent them a picture? Or the host had looked him up? Yeah. Yeah, that was probably it. Carlos relaxed and walked back into the kitchen, taking off his lab coat and sinking into a rickety kitchen chair. 

Yes, the radio host had probably just happened upon his picture and Carlos, in his usual jumpy way, had managed to freak himself out over nothing. There was absolutely nothing to be concerned over-

There was a knock at the door and Carlos flinched so hard his chair flipped, sending him tumbling to the floor. Scrambling to feet, he grabbed his lab coat and pulled it on as he ran for the door.

When he opened it, he found a small green bear standing at the front door, rubbing her stomach. "Dr. Carlos?" She said, holding out her paw.

Carlos took it tentatively, his heart still pounding a bit. "Yes. And you are?"

"Rachelle. I sort of lost my key on the way here, Doctor." Rachelle looked very guilty, and Carlos couldn't help but smile.

"Please, call me Carlos." He said, stepping aside to let her in. "I wasn't expecting anyone else to show up for another hour or so, Rachelle."

"I wasn't expecting to be here for another hour or so, D- Carlos." She walked in, and Carlos shut the door. "I was just packing up to go when suddenly, I was standing in front of Care Vale, my car right next to me. I tried calling home, but my calls didn't connect. I just got this voice asking me how many bears I've kissed." She wrinkled her nose up.

"Oh my. Well, the kitchen is this way." Carlos said, walking toward the kitchen. "There's not much in there. Just a few chairs. And the pantries are empty too, so we'll have to go shopping-"

He was cut off by the radio suddenly flaring up again, the volume seemingly turned up louder than it should be possible. 

"There is no word yet on if or how this will affect the Care Vale's-"

Carlos smashed the radio, and even after the sound stopped, he stomped on it a few more times. When he looked up, Rachelle was staring at him. "It doesn't turn off anyways?" He offered. "And it was really loud...."

He trailed off and both of them just looked at each other silently for a few minutes, until the doorbell rang.

"I got it." The both said at the same time, and they both headed towards the door.

Carlos got there first, and flung the door open, reveling two bears, both dressed from head to toe in black, one not tall, and the other not short. They even had leather balaclavas, and short capes. Carlos almost slammed the door shut on them.

"Dr Carlos? Dr. Rachelle? You are late to your press conference." The one who was not short said, stepping inside the hallway. "Mayor Winchell asked us to escort you both."

"Press conference? We didn't call a press conference." Carlos said, but the one who was not tall ignored him, grabbing Carlos's arm with their gloved paw and pulling him, gently, out the door.

"Of course you did, Doctor. Didn't you get the notice?" The one who was not short pulled Rachelle out. "We sent you a notice."

"A notice?" Carlos was bewildered. "Who called it? When is it?"

"Well, sir, it started 5 minutes ago. And you called it." The one who was not tall pushed him into the back of a cloudmobile. 

"Where is it?" Rachelle asked as she slipped in next to Carlos.

"That's classified, ma'am." They both said together.

"But then how were we suppose to-" The one who was not tall cut him off.

"A lack of knowledge on your part does not mean that you are excused." They said, as they turned the engine on. "Now hush. We are late enough already."

Carlos and Rachelle looked at each other and, by an unspoken agreement, they both fell silent. This wasn't an argument that they felt they could win.

A few minutes later, they pulled up in front of a large building, like a storage house. When the engine turned off and the two other bears got out, Rachelle and Carlos slipped out, and followed the two bears into the building. When they got in, there was a large crowd of bears of every color, including some colors that Carlos had never seen before. 

The two bears who had brought them in lead them up to a podium, and gestured to some note cards on the podium. "Just stick to your speech, and you'll be fine." 

"I don't have a spe-" The bears were already gone. Carlos sighed and stepped in front of the podium, and suddenly every eye in the building was on him. Thank goodness he didn't suffer from stage fright. 

Clearing his throat, he picked up the cards and began reading from them. "Hello, Care Vale. I am Doctor Camer- Carlos, and, uh, I'm a scientist. Care Vale is an amazing place, with a safe and, uh, reliable government that you shouldn't question..." 

Carlos stopped and flipped through the rest of the cards. They were all propaganda, and they all had different, but still wrong, variations of his name when he was endorsing government things. He set the cards down. "Umm, Care Vale is, by far, the most scientifically interesting community in all of Care-A-Lot, and I, and, uh, the rest of my team of scientists, have come to find out just what is going on here. I don't know much, because it's all classified, but it's probably really cool. So yeah. Thanks for letting me come. And... yeah. That's all." Suddenly very aware of the glares the bears dressed in black were giving him, Carlos flashed the audience one last smile and shuffled off the stage, rubbing his time piece belly badge nervously. 

He hurried out the door, only waiting long enough to Rachelle to follow him, before half walking, half sprinting, back to the lab. When they got there, he slammed the door behind him, breathing heavily.

"So...." Rachelle said, leaning against the door next to him. "Doctor Carmen?"

He tried to laugh, but it came out as more of a wheeze. 

"Carlos, how about next time I do the speaking. You didn't...." She cocked her head suddenly, listening. "Wait. Do you hear that?"

"Hear... what?" Carlos gasped. "My heart... is beating... too... loud."

"It's... It's the radio." She said, and, with a puzzled expression on her face, she went into the kitchen where the radio, fully intact, not sat upon the kitchen table. She reach out and turned the volume up a bit.

"- he grinned, and everything about him was perfect. And I fell in love instantly. Government agents from a vague, yet menacing agency were watching in the back. I fear for Carlos. I fear for Care Vale. I fear for everyone caught between what they-" She turned it down again.

"Wow. Well, who do you think he was talking about, Carlos?" She asked.

Carlos didn't answer, his mind frozen by illogical fear, and unreasonable terror. 

"...Carlos?" She asked again, shaking him. He didn't respond.

The doorbell rang again, and, after one last shake, She stood up and headed to the door while Carlos sat at the table, his eyes still locked on the radio.

Carlos knew, logically, that it was entirely possible the the bear on the radio was talking about someone else. It could have been any guy. But he knew, he just knew, that the host was talking about him, and that terrified him beyond any reason that he could even pin down, much less justify. He didn't even know why he was afraid. 

In all fairness, Carlos wasn't sure how long he would have stayed like that, frozen in terror, if it hadn't been for the bucket of cold water Rachelle threw in his face.

He spluttered, snapping back and desperately wiping his fur as if though he could manage to warm the water up. "What was that for!" He demanded, shivering.

"You were zoned out for, like 15 minutes." The person who replied was unfamiliar and so Carlos looked up. It was a huge bear with deep indigo fur and a bright yellow and green belly badge depicting a plus and minus sign. "We couldn't think of anything else to do. Sorry."

"Oh, Carlos, this is Dave. He's working here too." Rachelle nodded to Dave. "We got to work while you were out, by the way. Dave brought some equipment and set it up. And.... well, you're not going to believe this."

Carlos, even though he knew she was trying to distract him and evade punishment, was far too intrigued to not fall for it. With one last swipe at his face, he stood up. "Fine. Show me."

Dave nodded toward the hallway, and started walking. "Well, you know how we have devices for detecting thunderstorms?"

Carlos nodded as Dave stopped in front of a door. "Well, when we hooked them up, they just went crazy. I'm talking level 13 storms here. Off the charts. One of the machines broke because it couldn't handle it."

Carlos shook his head, and he looked at the monitors. "No, that couldn't be. The instruments must be broken. There's nothing."

Rachelle responded to that one. "No, see, that's what we though, but they're all working. So we went outside and looked down the rainbow road, and there's lighting, Carlos. Real, purple lighting right under us. The storm is huge, but for some reason, we don't feel a thing."

Carlos raised an eyebrow. "Let's go look." 

Sure, Carlos had seen some flashes of purple under the road, but there wasn't anyway that there could be a thunderstorm going on. The ground was as still as clouds could ever be. They had to be mistaken.

But a few minutes later, as he peered down through the rainbow, there was no denying it. Care Vale was suffering catastrophic thunderstorm... That no one could feel.

When he stood back up, his face was serious and drawn. "Anything else that you've found?" He asked.

"Well... There's a house that doesn't exist." Rachelle started.

"And there are serious levels of hatred and anger emotions from the radio station." Dave added.

"And at the bowling alley." Rachelle added. "Though not as big, it's still worrying for a Care-A-Lot community."

"Wait. How long was I out for?" Carlos was floored. He'd never heard of anything like this happening.

"Like, 15 minutes." Rachelle said, and Carlos gasped.

"Alright. Alright. Sooo..... Umm, well, we have to investigate. Alright. Who want to go where?" Carlos paced for a few minutes before stopping, because he hadn't gotten any reply.

"No one wants to pick a place?" He asked, and Dave and Rachelle shook their heads.

"All right. Let's... let's draw stars. Dave?" He gestured to a nearby bush with some stars, and Dave nodded. "Three distinct sizes, okay?"

When Dave had managed to catch three, they went back inside and slipped them into the pocket of Carlos's lab coat. "Alright. So, big one is the radio station, small one is the house that doesn't exist, and the medium one is the bowling alley. Ready?" 

Everyone nodded, so Carlos opened the pocket. "This one is for Dave. It's the... The small one." Dave nodded. 

"Alright, you know what tests to do. Alright, and Rachelle." He opened the pocket again, and the medium one drifted out. "Rachelle, you take the bowling alley." 

Which left... Oh snap. The small one. Which meant.... "I'll be taking the radio station." Carlos finished dully. 

"Well... We better get going." Dave said, shooing the stars out the window. "The sun should be setting soon."

"Yeah. Alright, so everyone, only basic tests. We meet back here in 30 minutes." Carlos shrugged his lab coat back on and headed towards the equipment, Dave and Rachelle following. "Oh, and Rachelle, leave a not on the door for anyone who comes by later, okay?"

"Okay." She said, nodding. "Should I leave a key on the door? In case they forget their's?"

He shook his head, remembering the bears in the balaclavas. "No, just tell them to wait outside." He grabbed his emotiongauge and clipboard. "Alright guys. Record everything. Be back in 30." And with that, Carlos slipped out the door.

When he slipped into his car, he noticed that the radio was up again, so he turned the radio down. Not that it mattered, because he was going to the radio station anyways. It just made him feel better, to be able to think.

When he pulled into the parking lot for the radio station, his emotiongauge was already making small beeps. He sat in the car for a few moments, to brace himself, before heading into the building.

He was greeted at the front desk by a smiling, yellow bear. "Hello!" She chirped. "How can I help you today?"

"I, uhhh...." Carlos looked down as his emotiongauge. "I was, uh, wondering if I could look around the station. I'm Dr Carlos-"

"Ohhhh, Carlos!" The bear jumped out from behind the desk. "Oh, Cecil's going to be so happy that you came!" She giggled. "Come on, follow me!"

Carlos, slower and with a lot less enthusiasm, followed her down a hallway. 

The hallway was strange. The floors and ceiling were both deep, though different shades, of purple, and the walls were like fun house mirrors, all of different sizes and shapes, each distorting Carlos differently. He was tall. He was short. He was skinny, or fat, or crooked, or green- Wait, what?

Carlos stopped to stare at the mirror that changed his color from grey to green, but before he could even begin to wrap his mind around, he heard an all too familiar voice sing his name. 

"Carlos!" The radio host said, and Carlos looked up to see him gliding down the hallway. "I'm so glad you decided to visit! Intern Sarah said i was coming on too heavy, but there is no such thing as too heavy. Am I right? Carlos?"

Carlos stared at the bear. He was a deep purple bear, but his belly badge was an eye, a purple eye with a white, crescent moon shaped pupil. Carlos had never seen anything like it before, and he didn't know what to make of it. What could it mean?

"Caaarloooos?" The bear asked again, cocking his head. 

Carlos, flustered, snapped his head back up to look at the bear.

"Hiiii! I'm Cecil!" Carlos didn't think he had ever heard anyone with that deep a voice sound so cheerful and upbeat without sounding fake, but with Cecil it worked.

"Umm... Hi, Cecil. I'm Carlos... And, um, I'm here to check out some readings we have." Carlos waved the emotiongauge over his head weakly.

Cecil sank a bit. "Not for... personal reasons?"

"Ahhh.... No, definitely not." Carlos pretended to be suddenly interested in his equipment so as to try and hide the blush of embarrassment on his face. Good grief, it was as if though he was trying to be as annoying as possible.

But while pretending to be interested in his readings, he actually discovered that said readings were off the chart. Ignoring Cecil, he began walking forwards and into a small room with a board and a microphone. When he put it near the microphone, it went crazy. 

"What's that?" Cecil asked, peering over Carlos's shoulder.

Carlos spun around, but when he pointed it at Cecil, the readings registered as fine, and well within the happiness levels. An inch to left, and it went off again.

"Listen, Cecil, we need to evacuate this building!" Carlos said." This is dangerous!"

Cecil blushed. "Carlos... Are you concerned for me?"

"Yes, Cecil, I am." Carlos said as he rushed for the door. "I fear for you. I fear for all of Care Vale."

As the door swung shut behind him, Carlos could have sworn he heard giggling and squealing.

When the engine to his car came to life and Carlos looked at his watch, he realized the sun was setting. Well, he was aware of the sun setting before checking his watch, but when he checked his watch he realized that the sun was supposed to have set 10 minutes ago. 

He wasn't sure which one concerned him more: the sun setting late, or the fact that was late. And then it bothered him that he wasn't sure which one bothered him more.

Everyone else was late too though, so when he sat down at the empty kitchen table he was able to set his prioritizes straight. And check several other clocks. And he checked what time the sun should be setting.

He had just put the fifth clock on the table when Dave burst through the door, Rachelle close on his heels. 

"There is a small army in the bowling alley!" Rachelle said, and at the same time Dave said "The sun set late!"

"Woah!" Carlos said, and gestured for them to sit. "Dave?"

"The sun set late!" He repeated, his eyes wide. "It set almost 11 minutes late!"

"I know. I know. Rachelle?"

"There's a city under the bowling alley!" She gasped. "An entire city!"

Carlos held up a paw. "Alright. Alright. Everyone, just take a moment to calm down. Breath." He paused for a moment or so. "Alright. Dave, how was the house that doesn't exist?" 

Dave looked down at his notes, the sun not setting having been apparently more important. "Well, it's in Desert Creek development. It's really weird. Like, it looks like it's right there, and it's between two identical houses, so it would make sense for it to be there, but it just... isn't there." 

"Did you knock?" Carlos asked, and Dave shook his head.

"No way. If the house isn't there... Then who would answer?" Dave's answer sent a chill down Carlos's spine.

"Alright then. And, uh, Rachelle? The bowling alley?" Carlos looked over at the tiny green bear.

"Well... I was looking around the bowling alley. I'd just finished my sweep outside and was just coming in when I heard the owner of the bowling alley, a Mr. Williams, yelling. So I rushed back there, and, in the pin retrieval in lane 5. And there was this... city. It's really deep underground, which doesn't even make any sense. How can there be anything that far down? I could see rocks all the way down, but the city should just be hanging in air." Rachelle shook her head. "And Carlos... we heard voices from down there. And they didn't sound very friendly."

"Alright... Well-" Carlos was cut off by the doorbell ringing and he stood up, irritated. This was a science lab, he thought to himself as he marched down the hallway, not a store. Why was everyone swinging by? 

"Who's there?" He asked, exasperated as he opened the door. 

There were two bears outside, one pink, and one yellow. They looked like twins. "Hi. Is this the lab?" The pink one asked.

"Yes. Who are you?" Carlos said staring at them.

"Umm.... We're working here now. I'm Robin, and this is my sister, Hannah." The pink one- Robin, nodded at him. "Can we come in?"

"Yes, yes. Come in." Carlos stepped aside and held the door open for them before leading them to the kitchen. "Robin, Hannah, this is Dave and Rachelle." He pointed to them in turn, and each one waved as there name was called. "Guys, these are Robin and Hannah. They're on the team too."

Robin and Hannah waved, and each took a seat. However, since there were only four chairs, Carlos was forced to stand. 

"Alright. Back to the topic on hand. So.. The sun set late today." Carlos said, grabbing his notes from in front of Hannah's seat. 

"The sun set late?" Robin interjected, raising an eyebrow. "The sun can't set late."

"Well it did." Dave said, staring at a clock.

"Why?" Hannah asked, and Rachelle shrugged.

"We have no idea. But this whole town is wrong." Rachelle rubbed her head absent-mindedly. "It all wrong. Nothing works here..."

"Well, look. It's late, and for some of us today has been a long day. The contact here said that there are 6 rooms upstairs, each fully furnished, so I say we go to bed. We'll need to be up 25 minutes before the sun rises tomorrow so we can time, and we have lots of science to do. We'll catch Robin and Hannah up tomorrow. Sound like a plan?"

Rachelle and Dave nodded. Carlos wasn't sure what Hannah and Robin did, since as far he was concerned, they hadn't earned a vote yet. 

"Alright. We'll have pizza at the pizza place next door, go to bed immediately afterwards, and be up early tomorrow. Also, last person up tomorrow has to find the store here and buy some chairs and furniture. Based off what we gathered today, we may be here for a while. We ought to make ourselves at home here." Carlos headed for the door and everyone else followed him.

This was new to Carlos. This wasn't the first time he'd been charge of a project, but this was the first time that Carlos had been in charge, and had people respect him. Care Vale seemed to spin a lot of things around on their head, but there was only thing Carlos knew for sure. As soon as he heard the voice on the radio coo: "Good night, listeners, good night." And saw the masked bears in the bushes outside the lab, he knew he was going to use every lock that came with the door to the lab. And maybe, just maybe, he'd buy some more.


	2. Glow Cloud

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A glowing cloud has come to Care Vale and to everyone's confusion, it's dropping stuffed animals all over the place. The looks like a job for Carlos and his team of scientist!

It had been a week since Carlos had arrived in Care Vale. Or maybe it had been a few days? Or a month? Carlos wasn't sure yet. He was measuring days by the times he slept. He had, of course, given up on trying to measure time by sunrises or sunsets. 

The sun, as it turned out, was very.... fickle. It only came out when it wanted to, and set the same way. Sometimes it didn't rise for days, sometimes it didn't set for days. In fact, one time, after Carlos had made a comment to himself about how ridiculous the sun was, the sun set. Half a second after he said it. Normally he wouldn't have thought much of it, but it had only risen to minutes ago. 

Cecil said the sun was probably sulking. "Gosh, Carlos, I hardly blame the sun for setting like that. I mean, how would you feel if I said that you were ridiculous? The sun only rises as a favor, Carlos, and we do need to appreciate it's effort."

Carlos wanted to say that that was silly, that the sun wasn't alive, and was too far away to hear him anyways, but he bit his tongue. This was Care Vale, after all. The laws of science rarely applied, and logic never really worked.

Cecil had grown on Carlos, to be honest. While he rarely made sense, he always did try to help Carlos, no matter what hour of night (or maybe it was day?) Carlos called him at. 

Nothing worked in Care Vale. Here, the bear who had scared him half to death ended up becoming the closest thing he had to a friend, outside of his group of scientists.

The scientists had bonded very quickly, and tightly. Well, the one's who stayed anyways. The twins, Hannah and Robin, had left after the second day. 

"We didn't really want to be scientists anyways." Robin had explained as they'd packed their bags. "Our parents wanted us to carry on the family tradition. And that was fine. It was, like, whatever. But this-" she gestured to the now grey color of her and her twin's fur, "this is not okay."

"I told you not to look at the Hooded Figures." Rachelle had muttered under her breath, and Carlos shushed her.

"I understand why you want to leave, and I respect it. I, uh, I really hope you get some color back." Honestly, Carlos was thrilled to see them go. The two had turned out to be twin terrors, and while he felt guilty about thinking that, it was true. They hadn't wanted to do science. They'd done the bare minimum, and Carlos was not okay with that.

So while Carlos and his team were now two members short, the atmosphere was a lot lighter and friendlier. 

That's not to say it wasn't stressful for the bears left. What with everything going on in Care Vale, and with so few scientists, their resources were stretched thin. 

Rachelle wanted to look into the tiny city more, Dave wanted to do more research on the sun ("Because the sun being picky is not a scientific explanation") and Carlos, who was in charge, wanted to look into the thunderstorm.

But today there wasn't any arguments, or intense rock paper scissor matches on what to do. Today, the answer was obvious. It was literally a flashing, neon sign.

At some point, and Carlos hadn't quite managed to pin down the time, a glowing cloud had moved into Care Vale. A glow-in-the-dark (which was great, because the sun hadn't risen that day anyways, and Carlos' flashlight was biting him sometimes) neon cloud. That was also, upon closer inspection, raining stuffed animals on Care Vale.

That was the part that was driving Carlos crazy. How on earth was it raining stuffed animals? Where were the stuffed animals coming from? Was the cloud made of stuffed animals? And how close could they get to it?

The glow cloud had started raining small stuffed animals. Like, beanie animals, and key chain pets. Now it was teddy bears and stuffed rabbits and stuff. While it was highly unlikely that the stuffed animals would get any bigger, Carlos wasn't sure he trusted reason enough to leave the White Sands Ice Cream Shop, his current observation spot.

He was so focused on the glow cloud that he didn't even notice the other bear slipping into the seat across from him until the bear spoke.

"You're Carlos the Scientist, right?" The orange bear asked, looking at him with his head slightly cocked to the side.

Carlos snapped his gaze down to him, flushing a bit. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, that's me. Do you want something?"

"Not really, no. Just wanted to talk to you, you know? You're... pretty famous around here. Cecil talks about you a lot, and I just wanted to see if you were as perfect as they say. I'm Earl, by the way. Scoutmaster Earl Harlan." 

The bear held out his paw and Carlos shook it, embarrassed that he'd forgotten to ask the other bear's name. He was so rude these days. He felt bad. "It's a pleasure to met you, Earl."

Earl smiled at him. "The pleasure's all mine, Carlos the Scientist. You know, you're teeth really do look like a military military. Sure is a shame you don't smile more often."

Carlos flushed again. "I-I-I..." He stammered, ad Earl laughed.

"It's okay, I understand. Care Vale must seem very odd to you. So many exciting things to look at, right?" 

Carlos nodded, relaxing a bit. Finally, someone who understood. 

"Just don't forget about people, Carlos. I get that you want to study everything, but socializing is important too."

"I do socialize-" Carlos started, but Earl cut him off.

"I mean with the community. Hanging out around Josie's house to get reading on... whatever is there, and asking Cecil to explain things doesn't count. I don't know how things work where you come from, but those don't mean anything to your monthly quota of caring, and heaven knows you don't want to fall behind on that."

"Monthly quota? What's a monthly quota?" Carlos didn't like the sound of it, whatever it was.

But before Earl Harlan could answer, there was a bang as something- and it was something heavy- fell on the roof of the ice cream shop.

Monthly quota forgotten, Carlos rushed to the door. "Is that a.... a lion?"

It was a lion. A giant, stuffed lion the size of Carlos' bed. 

"Wow." Earl said from next to him. "That would really make some kid's day."

"It'll only make a kid's day if we can get it off." Said the bear who ran the ice cream shop, a friendly looking red bear. She turned to face the crowd. "Anyone who can get it off gets a free dipped cone!"

Carlos raised an eyebrow at her. "Aren't you going to try and get it off before you give away ice cream?" 

"Why bother? It's a fair trade." She said, before shuffling off to the phone. Probably about to call Cecil and ask him to get the word out. People did that.

Carlos shrugged and took out his binoculars to look at the glow cloud which was now farther away and over Old Town Care Vale. 

He pulled out his phone to call Rachelle to ask her if the photos they'd taken were done yet. You know, the one's with the special filters? But no sooner had he pulled out his phone then-

Carlos blinked. What was he doing at the White Sands Ice Cream Shop? How was he at the White Sands Ice Cream Shop?

He stared at the bowl of ice cream (that he didn't remember ordering) intently before looking up at the orange bear seated across from him.

The orange bear looked as confused as he was, rubbing his fleur de lis belly badge. 

"Who are you?" The bear asked him. "Why am I here?"

"I don't know." Carlos said, then corrected himself. "I mean, I don't know why you're here. Or who you are. Or why I'm here. But I know who I am. I'm Carlos-"

"Oh, Carlos the Scientist?" The bear nodded. "That explains the perfect teeth. I'm Earl, by the way. Scoutmaster Earl Harlan."

"You know, the Scientist isn't my last name." Carlos said, irritated. Then he felt bad. He had no excuse for acting this way. It wasn't like he'd ever met the guy before. Unless, you know, he had.

"I know it isn't, but it sounds a lot better, and it suits you. Carlos the Scientist." Earl smiled at him, then stood up. "I have no idea what time is, and I had a meeting. I sure hope I'm not late. I hate to rush out like this, but..."

"it's okay." Carlos sighed. "I understand." He didn't mind the bear leaving, he was just worried that he'd missed something important. That he'd missed out on science.

"Alright. Maybe I'll see you around, Carlos." Earl said before slipping out the door, leaving Carlos alone with his melting, chocolate ice cream, and the faint, but pretty scent of vanilla.


End file.
